One minute we are all sliding around in the mud at Badminton, then suddenly in the blink of an eye its mince pie consuming season already. The season was filled with adventures – Luhmuhlen, Europeans, Arville and finished with the new customary sun-soaked season finale at Pau. More croissants, an epic thunderstorm, flooding and sunrises.
Get a cuppa and a supply of mince pies before getting comfy…
What a year that was. Again another season has come to an end, all the turkey and trimmings eaten and time to recap on the stellar year of equestrian adventures I have been lucky enough to enjoy with my team of riders and clients, before the fitness work kicks off in preparation of the new season.
There have been so many highlights, I decided to pick out my most memorable moments in photos from the 2022 season. Here are my picks:
Some horses just get under your skin and pull at the heart strings and ever since watching a young, relatively unknown rider called Ros Canter, on her gigantic dark bay equine companion, I have been smitten. Who couldn’t be?! For all 17hh of dear Alby were just perfection. And together they conquered the world; quite literally.
They say good things come to those that wait – and boy was it a long wait to drive back through the stone-walled entrance of Badminton Horse Trials once again. Three long years since I was there and to say I was giddy to be back was a monumental understatement…
What a season! Despite Covid’s best attempts at slowing the season down, I have managed to enjoy 28 BE & FEI Eventing adventures during the 2021 season.
In the latest blog, I bravely delve into the brimming image library from the season and pick out a few of my many favourites…
Sitting on the grass amongst the crowd on Sunday afternoon, listening intently to the all-female top 3 heap praise on the Bicton team and all their hard work and effort to deliver not only the only 5* competition on British soil this year, but that they delivered it in style, had me grinning from ear to ear.
From Devon to the Highlands, Cheshire to Gloucestershire, I’ver certainly seen the sights this summer. But it doesn’t end there, there’s still some more adventures planned for September… Onwards to Blenheim, Europeans and then suddenly, we are looking at the season finale’s round the corner, with winter hibernation getting ever closer.
So, although it’s a later start than we’re all used to, we’re all standing in the start box and the countdown is on - good luck to all competitors, owners, grooms, officials, volunteers and ‘togs. There’s lots to look forward to and some very exciting combinations to keep an eye on!
Eyes up, heels down and kick on!
Here’s to a safe, continuous and successful season to you all and hope to see you all out on course soon.
The countdown in on to the Tokyo Games, with less than four months now till the Eventing medals are decided…
There’s no doubting Team GBR have an embarrassment of riches to give the selectors some sleepless nights over. But this could arguably be the most competitive Olympics for some time. Leaving the GB dilemma to one side for now, here’s my quick look at the International medal contenders:
What a year that was! A pandemic was rather an extreme way of focusing the mind. Focusing on what mattered. What was worth the effort and what was not. What stirred the soul and what no longer mattered.
We may not have had a full season, but 2020 was definitely a year to savour ‘Quality over Quantity’ all the way.
Sometime’s you don’t need a lot of something for it to pack a punch - and that is definitely the case with the 2020 Eventing season.
It’s been bloody tough there’s no doubt, it’s been hard to plan with reduced press numbers permitted entry and late confirmation of attendance had me checking email accounts every 5 seconds on the run up to the big targets. But it’s been the most wonderful season in so many ways too……
The restart that we had all hoped and prayed for had finally come. Given the length of time that had passed since I was last at an Event, I’d be forgiven for thinking that we were starting a new season, but this was 2020 version 2.0. The wait was long and obviously completely necessary, given the global pandemic we all found ourselves living through...
But pulling into the hallowed turf of Barbury Castle, albeit a week later than originally scheduled, was just the tonic I had been hoping for.
With the continuing restrictions, I have done the obligatory garden and house tidy, then I started the online tidy. The trawl through the archives to tidy and refresh. And this got me thinking - now I will admit the search initially started with my top 10 photographs and this became a little impossible, so that grew into 15 before settling on my 20 favourite images. The soundtrack to the afternoon would have gone ’99 photos and I can’t pick 1’!
The advent of digital has been seen as a great technological advance, access to endless images online is a revolution, but has it made us all somewhat de-value the photographic production process along the way?
With the sun starting to poke its head out from behind all the grey winter cloud and the monumental milestone of it just about still being daylight when I get home, I can happily declare that the Eventing season must be just around the corner.